Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of call answer options are associated with different systems for providing communications, the different systems including the data network and the PSTN, and wherein the one type of call via a data network is one of: a VoIP (voice-over-IP) call and a non-VoIP call.
3. The method of claim 1, further comprising, in response to the selected option indicating a third call answer option, forwarding the incoming call to a different communication device indicated in the selected option.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first call answer option and second call answer option are associated with routing of the call to the same communication device respectively using wireless connection via the data network and a cellular data connection via the PSTN.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein the determination of the call answer options occurs in response to receiving the incoming call as a VoIP type of call.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein the incoming call is a type of call other than a VoIP call, and in response to the selected option indicating a first call answer option, routing the incoming call to the communication device as a VoIP call.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein the ability to change the plurality of call answer options includes an ability to add certain of the plurality of call answer options.
8. The method of claim 1, wherein the ability to change the plurality of call answer options includes an ability to remove certain of the plurality of call answer options.
9. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining the plurality of call answer options based on the current connectivity and data usage that is indicative of both the PSTN and VoIP usage in the period of time, the plurality of call answer options including the first and second call answer options.
10. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of call answer options include two or more of: hang-up, routing to the communication device via the PSTN, routing to the communication device as a VoIP call via the data network, and routing to the communication device as a video-conference.
11. The method of claim 1, wherein the method includes the data-communications server determining the call answer options and communicating the call alert message to the communication device in response to receiving an incoming VoIP call for the communication device.
12. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining of the plurality of call answer options is further based on a geographic location of the communication device.
13. The method of claim 1, further including identifying one or more of the communication devices in a geographic location of the communication device, and determining a third call answer option based on the geographic location.
14. The method of claim 1, wherein the subscription plan includes identification of allotted data in the period of time and a data charge for data usage greater than the allotted data.
15. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the call alert message includes providing identification of at least one of: the current connectivity; data usage indicative of VoIP usage in a period of time; data usage indicative of PSTN usage in a period of time; and data usage indicative of VoIP and PSTN usage in a period of time.
18. The method of claim 1, further comprising causing a PSTN operator to forward incoming calls to a PSTN number associated with the communication device to a VoIP number for the communication device via call forwarding.
19. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication device includes a graphical user interface (GUI) communicatively coupled to the data-communications server, and the method further includes: prompting the user, via the GUI and in response to the incoming call, via the plurality of call answer options to select the first call answer option via the GUI, or to direct that a PSTN operator redirect the incoming call to a VoIP number by declining the incoming call.
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April 18, 2023
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